Introduction
Get ready for chaos in the apartment as you need to fix many apartments in a short amount of time. Tools Up is made for multiple people and perfect for some co-op fun. This is a game that can nourish your relationships or destroy them, if someone is feeling bad towards you, they can prevent you from completing the level. Because you will need to work together to paint the house, do the floor, or whatever the blueprint says that you need to do. You will need to work together to clear the chores in the house and clean up your mess in a timely manner. There are 30 levels that you need to complete with the secret biome included. Every few floors there is a new biome that faces you with new challenges, some of these include ice and lava. The most annoying thing that you will face is the evil dog that likes to throw you and your stuff around! You can play this game with up to four players and clearing the levels good enough will unlock new characters. Are you ready to face these gruesome challenges and fix all the apartments on every floor in this building? I will not type a story in this review as there is no story in Tools Up! You decorate apartments as requested!
What did I think of Tools Up before playing?
I saw this game come by on a reviewing platform and it looked very colorful and fun. I have not played a game like Tools Up before, it is a game based on co-op challenges and decorating an apartment.
My wife also liked the game so we decided to request a key for playing the game in co-op mode. We decided to watch some footage together.
The game showed a lot of potential and it seemed very fun, we saw people working together to paint a house while they were slipping on the paint!
We learned that Tools Up also has some unlockable characters, we were very interested if these were just reskins or if they added something more to the game.
The sound was good and the graphics looked very funny. We were very excited to start playing this game!
Luckily I and my wife can work together very well in a game but if you cannot work together this might be one hell of a ride!
I rate Tools Up with a 7.5 before playing.
It was clear that the game is a co-op ride and that you will need to work together. The graphics are colorful and the soundtrack sounded simple but fun.
We were excited to see what this game holds for us!
Gameplay
In Tools Up you will need to work together to re-decorate the apartment, there are a total of 30 apartments in the game. If you fail to do so in the time you will fail and need to restart the level. There are various tasks that you will need to perform. I will not list all the tasks as I do want to leave a bit of a surprise for you. The most important thing that you will need before redecorating is the blueprint of the project. Without a blueprint, you will work blind which is not wise as you have time to complete each level! Some of the basic things that you will need to do in Tools Up are painting the walls and putting in a new floor. You can usually find the items that you need to use in the apartment. If the items are not in the apartment there will be a courier that brings them after a certain amount of time has passed. When you get further into the game you might also need to move furniture out of the house or remove the floor or other items first. You will also get different kinds of floors, some of these need cement, without using cement you cannot place this floor. You will also need a special adhesive to put up wallpaper. In later levels you will also need to add or remove walls, the game will provide you with the correct tools and instructions when the time is right! Levels will challenge you with certain elements, the last level has a unique challenge for you to face!
In every level, you will gain a ranking based upon your completion rate of the level, for every action that is correct you will gain more completion. There is a max of three stars that you can gain. When you have gained enough stars, you will unlock a new character. These are just skins but they look really great. If you run out of the time you will lose this level and then you can choose to either restart or quit. When you have finished the game, you will unlock the time attack mode. This modus is really difficult and will reward you for doing the right things but punishes you for doing things wrong. In time attack you need to know what to do without looking at the blueprint, it is really hard to do this and take a screenshot!
There are also more characters to unlock with time attack mode but so far we have been unable to gain enough time attack badges for the first unlockable but we are still working on it! We have collected all 90 stars in the standard mode.
I rate the gameplay of Tools Up with an 8.0.
The game features excellent gameplay and the campaign would take around 10 hours to complete if you take it slow. The difficulty seems very balanced and the new skin unlocks make you want to get the highest rankings. Unlocking skins or costumes is a great idea. The game explains very well what you need to do when a new situation occurs. Time attack is for the pro gamers and it is great that they added this mode! A good idea is to not put two different substances in one bucket!
Sound and Graphics
The graphics look very fun and it seemed like a great idea for this kind of game, there are many biomes and they all have a different flair to them. I liked the last biome the most.
It looked like the developers did a wonderful job in creating amazing graphics, the game has a small intro and outro which also looks fun!
The sound is good and the sound effects are great, the slip and slide when walking over paint is great. There is also a special sound effect when the courier arrives which is very important. If you are not fast enough the courier leaves again!
I rate the sound and graphics of Tools up with a 7.4.
The graphics are created very well and there are many different soundtracks. The sound effects fit the construction theme well.
What did I think after playing Tools Up?
The game was very fun to play and we had a blast, the later levels were a bit challenging but we managed to get all the 90 stars!
My wife liked the skin of the snail the best but this did not make her slow of course! I liked the skin of the pigeon the most but it took a while to unlock it as you need 65 stars.
We are still curious as to what we unlock when completing more time challenges, we both agree that the last biome was the best and it had the most challenging levels.
On some levels, there were more blueprints but we think two of them were fake! We eventually learned to almost play without a blueprint but this was mostly trial and error.
We needed to work together perfectly to get the job done, luckily this worked perfectly but if two people can’t work together it might get a bit hostile.
I wonder how much chaos there will be when there are four players! Good luck with getting all tasks divided fairly.
This game is mostly fun for two people and I don’t think you will have as much fun playing solo but it is possible of course.
Tools Up matched almost perfectly with what we had expected before playing!
I rate Tools Up after playing with a 7.5.
The gameplay was fun and it did not feel repetitive or boring after a while because of new challenges and biomes. Working to unlock new skins keeps you on your toes to get the best timing as possible.
Time attack mode is a nice touch that will certainly challenge you! This is a game that could really become a hit!
Personal rating
I liked the last biome the most and the music was a mix between Luigi’s Mansion and the Adams Family, I might be going insane but this was a great moment for me when I heard this soundtrack.
I was really glad I was a pigeon when I fell off the roof, the courier nicely delivered me back to the level!
My personal rating of Tools up is a 7.7.
Pros and Cons
Pros
– You can play this game with up to four to players in couch co-op.
– There are six different biomes with different graphics and challenges.
– You can unlock a time attack mode which is very difficult to complete.
– The sound and soundtracks are very good in Tools Up.
– The gameplay does not get repetitive after playing multiple levels.
– You can unlock new skins if you get a high ranking in the levels.
Cons
– I wish there were more levels!
I would recommend this game to anyone that is up for a game to play with friends but beware if your friend likes to stop you in your tracks! This might break your friendship or cause some family trouble, only recommended if you can play nice together! The final rating of Tools Up is…drumroll…
7.6
You can leave your thoughts about the game in the comments!
There is a video review in the making, I am unsure when it will be posted.
I hope you liked reading the review, I hope to see you in the next review!
